Sewing School

J and I had to take a break from sewing because of our big move. It took some time to finally get back into school and such, to pack and unpack the boxes, and to arrange the rooms of our house. But, we are finally ready to resume our crafting - yay! We finally cleared out our sewing room (my DH calls it the utility room since his tools and stuff are sharing the space), scrubbed the floor, and set our machines up so we can just sit down and sew when the mood hits us.

I will be working on curtains, pillows, and things for the house but J has a few projects she would like to do. Most of them involve making items for her new room. But, I wanted to share a mini project that she put the finishing touches on - a dog pillow for Riley. It is super cute and now sits inside the crib unless my monkey throws it out to the floor:)

This project was found from Craft Tuts Plus (link below). It had a free downloadable full size pattern which I love. I hate trying to reinvent the wheel. She sewed everything using her machine. Have I mentioned how much she loves her machine? (Thanks Mom!)

It was a rainy, yucky day and we decided to sew (after J played with the legos:). I helped J find a new project to try and she chose a mini messenger bag from Crazy Little Projects (link below). I was somewhat nervous that it was going to be frustrating for her but she was determined to try it.

J worked with fabrics that were in our stash. I smile overtime I say that I have a fabric stash now:) That would also be thanks to my mom:) She ironed all of her pieces herself.

She cut out all of her pattern pieces as well. I just directed how to place the pattern on the fold.

Here she is sewing her strap. She used the heart fabric from the dust ruffle pockets that I made her.

She sewed this messenger bag all by herself. I am so proud of her. She even didn't fuss when I suggested that she rip out some of the stitches to correct her mistake:)

Isn't it cute? She is going to sew velcro to the flap to keep it closed. She loved it so much that she took it to Friday School with her lunch in it. Nice job, J!

Links

Craft Tuts Plus - has a cute dog pillow with a free printable pattern.

Crazy Little Projects - has the pattern and tutorial for the mini messenger bag.

My Projects

With the move to the house and all of the repairs we had to complete, it has taken me a while to work on the decorative items that I wanted to complete. The house still needs repairs but the list is getting shorter. Here are a few things I have been working on lately.

J chose a pink of all pinks color for her room. We decided to go with a butterfly theme and I wanted to make her butterfly curtains. I love how they turned out. I had to line the curtains which I didn't like doing but I think they turned out cute. I lined them with a sheet that I found at a thrift store and I bought the fabric with a coupon. Yay! So they weren't too expensive to make. I love the butterflies. You can't tell from the picture but only the bodies of the butterflies are sewn down so the wings will flutter (somewhat). My inspiration for the curtains came from this quilt by Shabby Fabrics.

Recently, I was blessed by some friends from church. We had a crafty weekend away from the kids. We ate, worked on crafty things, and then, went shopping at an awesome flea market. It was my kind of weekend! One of the projects I worked on was a name banner for J's room. It was a simple project but it turned out super cute. I hung in in her window.

J's room is small and she has plenty of stuffed animals. I found a white dust ruffle for a twin bed at a thrift store that was brand new. I made pockets for the one side of the bed that shows. The pockets will hold her stuffed animals and fluffy toys. This was an easy solution to add some more storage to J's room. I bought the fabric at JoAnn's. Kaleb was so impressed with the pocket dust ruffle that he asked for one of his own.

My last completed project was a banner for our sewing room. It says "Create." This was also simple to make and it just adds something to our sewing room until I have the money to add other things:) I found a pattern online and went with it. It doesn't take too much fabric, you could really use your scraps if you had some. I am able to get crafty. I have missed it so. I still have plenty of things to make for the house but I am crossing some things off the list. Hope you have time to be crafty today:)

Tot Tuesday

Look what my little guy is learning how to do....

not too bad, huh? What a cutie, if I say so myself.

Jesus Entered Jerusalem as a King

Our next lesson from Telling God's Story Book 1 was about Jesus entering the city as a king. We are working through Jesus' last week of life as we come to an end in this Bible curriculum. This lesson was about the Triumphal Entry.

Again, Kaleb asked to participate in our Bible lesson. I always have sheets ready for him but I let him tell me when he is ready. The kids colored the sheet while I read through the lesson. We read first from the Bible and then we read the lesson text.

I found a simple craft from Mommy's Adventures (link below) to go along with the lesson. It required a printable leaf pattern and green/yellow tissue paper.

They tore up tissue paper and glued it onto the leaf pattern to create palm branches like the ones that were lain before Jesus as he entered the city. Kaleb surprised me by seeing this project all the way through to the end. He wasn't about to be out done by his sister. Because of repairs and such on the house, we left the lesson at that. But the text offered more to do if you wanted. See you soon.

Links

A Mommy's Adventures - has the free printable leaf pattern and tissue paper craft idea.

State Study - Florida

Every week (well, almost every week), we learn about a state. While learning about the state, J is working on a state notebook as well. This week's state was Florida. As you will see from the pictures, this state study went over to the new house because we couldn't finish it in time:)

J read about the state of Florida. You can see the bewildered look on her face about some of the silly laws of Florida.

J matched the states and capitals using the cards I found from The Dollar Store.

She drew an orange tree for her notebook since you can't have Florida without oranges:) I love my pretty girl. I was hoping to have 25 states done by the end of the school year. Not sure we will but we will eventually finish our state notebook. Next year, in fourth grade, we will do an in-depth study of our home state. This time, it was just an overview.

We're Taking a....

You have heard of taking a sick day, a mental health day, but today, we are taking a Lego day. Recently, we had a friend bring us an extreme amount of legos that her son decided to give up. When I say extreme, this kid was a lego enthusiast. We received a plastic bin, a box, a bag of legos and even a homemade Lego table. Wow. The kids went ballistic...so many legos in one place and we weren't even at the Lego store:)

The next day, we woke up to a rainy, yucky day. It was dreary and dark. We had school to do but we decided to take a Lego day. One day where the kids could just explore and play with their new treasures. A day to be free but I am sure I snuck in some chapter book reading while they were playing:) Every now and then, you need to take a day....a day not related to school to just be free. We are enjoying our day, playing Legos. Hope you enjoy your day:) See you soon.

Kaleb found some treasures in the Lego box....Star Wars.

J working intently on her creations.

She made a house complete with furniture and art work.

Riley was not to be outdone. He had to play too. He experimented with the Lego table. Thanks Liz and Matthew! They will definitely be played with (and stepped on).

Character Training - Forgiveness with free printable

As part of our Bible curriculum, J and I are working through the Virtue Training Bible. Each week, we learn about a new virtue and this week's virtue was forgiveness.

We start the lesson by discussing what forgiveness is and she looks up the definition in the dictionary. She adds that to her virtue notebook page (printable link below).

I found a cute coloring page on forgiveness from His Sunflower (link below). J loves to color while I am reading.

We then discussed ways she could forgive, especially her brothers:) She wrote them down in her notebook.

This time around, J asked to find the passage in the Bible and read it. She looked up each verse, read stout loud, and highlighted it. Her reading has come so far! I am a proud momma:)

Here is a view of what her virtue notebook looks like as well as her forgiveness word ring. If you would like the free printables that I created to go-along with the virtue study, please feel free to download. Enjoy. If you have any questions, let me know. I would also love to know if you are using the printables for your own notebook. Thanks.

Download Forgiveness Notebook Printable HERE.

Links

Kids of Integrity - has a free lesson plan, game ideas, and printable for forgiveness.

His Sunflower - a free coloring page and mini bible lesson on forgiveness.

Meaningful Mama - lessons on forgiveness.

Character First - has free printables and videos for forgiveness.